60% of voters collected PVCs —Jega

The Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, has said that 60 per cent of eligible voters have collected their Permanent Voter Cards for the 2015 general elections.

The INEC chairman said this on Wednesday in Lagos during the public presentation of the Nigerian media code of conduct for the coverage of the 2015 elections.

Jega said, “INEC registered 73.5 million Nigerians in a period of three weeks for the 2011 elections, we rushed the process. Since then, we have improved on the register. There are challenges in the distribution of voter cards but the challenges have been overblown. Some of the challenges include inability of the contractor to meet deadlines.

“This has also created some negative publicity for INEC. But despite all these, we have done well. For now, we have only Borno and Niger where PVCs have not been distributed. Before February 2015, every Nigerian will have their PVCs. On the average, about 60 per cent of eligible voters have collected their PVCs. There are a lot of challenges, but God’s willing we are on top.”

Jega also said that the postponement of   the April 2, 2011 presidential election was one of the most unpleasant and difficult decisions he had ever taken in life.

While premising the decision on non-provision of result sheets by the contractor, he said some Nigerians suggested that the commission should write the results on a piece of paper and make the announcement.

He however assured that INEC would improve on its duties to ensure that such mistakes were not repeated in the 2015 general elections.

At the event, Jega also gave indications that there would be high deployment of security operatives for next year’s election because of the security challenges in the country.

He said, “The postponement of April 2 (2011) presidential election was unpleasant and one of the most difficult things I have done in my life. But it had to be done. We promised Nigerians that we were going to conduct credible elections. If we had proceeded with the election of April 2 (2011), there would have been no definition of credibility that could have applied in that election.

“Results sheets had not arrived for distribution in at least two geo-political zones and we could not have conducted general elections in some zones and not in others because we will be misunderstood. People would have said it was political agenda.

“It was a technical issue; all the ballot papers were available but the results sheets had not been brought because the contractor promised delivery by Wednesday and kept shifting the deadlines. Up till midnight of Friday, we were sure that if those materials had arrived we would have distributed them. We had the Airforce giving us 14 aircraft put in Lagos and Abuja airports so that anytime they get there, they could be deployed so that elections could continue. We kept hope against hope that it would come. But unfortunately, the aircraft didn’t land until 9:00 am on Saturday.”

He added that by then the accreditation had started in many polling units, while people suggested that we should continue “because in 2007, elections were declared without even results sheets.”

The INEC chairman said, “They even suggested that we should use pieces of paper and write but we said ‘no’, because we are committed to a credible election. There is no way we could conduct election without result sheets on the first day of election. As the President rightly said, we were keeping hopes against hope. He himself was in his village waiting to vote when we made the announcement that elections would not hold. We got a lot of criticisms for that and I took responsibility for it; but we learnt a bitter lesson, it was necessary for it to be done.”